ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

In a study of New York state apple orchards, plant pathologists have identified a new fungal pathogen that causes bitter rot disease in apples.

The active agents of many drugs are natural products, so called because often only microorganisms are able to produce the complex structures. Similar to the production line in a factory, large enzyme complexes put these active agent molecules together. Biologists have now succeeded in investigating the basic mechanisms of one of these molecular factories.

Liquid droplets formed from DNA display a peculiar response to enzymes. An international collaboration has now been able to explain the mechanisms behind bubble formation.

The program could make it easier to identify the deadly antimicrobial resistant bacteria that exist in the environment. Such superbugs annually cause more than 2.8 million difficult-to-treat pneumonia or bloodstream infections and 35,000 deaths in the US.

In a surprise twist, a major group of flowering plants is evolving twice as quickly in temperate zones as the tropics.

Scientists studying the 'near threatened' tequila bat, best known for its role in pollinating the Blue Agave plant from which the drink of the same name is made from, have analyzed its DNA to help inform conservationists on managing their populations.

Researchers have found that dogs adapt their communicative strategies to their environment and that owner behavior influences communicative effort and success. Experimental results found no evidence that dogs rely on communication history or follow the principle of least effort and suggest that owner behavior has a bigger impact on canine communication than previously thought.

Continuously observing animals with motion sensors could improve earthquake prediction.

Can antibiotic-resistant bacteria escape from sewers into waterways and cause a disease outbreak? A new study examined the microbe-laden ''biofilms'' that cling to sewer walls, and even built a simulated sewer to study the germs that survive within.